IMA Research Provides ‘Tradie’ Insights

08 Dec, 2016

Ever wondered what goes through a ‘tradie’s’ head? It might be a scary thought to some, but as one of Australia’s leading Business to Business marketing companies, with extensive experience in promoting trade-related products and services, IMA wanted to know.

So recently the agency conducted an in-depth market survey with over 750 Australian tradespeople, to get a deeper understanding of this growing industry and its increasingly affluent labour force.

In what is thought to be the most comprehensive research conducted to date on this industry sector, the findings yielded many interesting and at times unexpected results.

According to IMA CEO Karl Boothroyd, the catalyst for undertaking the research was to gain a deeper insight of how the tradie demographic was engaging in a changing digital landscape as well as gaining a more general understanding of tradie purchasing decisions.

“As a marketing agency that specialises in the construction industry, we need to ensure we are providing our clients with advice and recommendations that is based on the latest facts, not opinions,” Karl said.

“There has been much hearsay about tradies, their uptake of social media, their engagement with brands and other factors, so we thought it was time to get the facts through some meaningful research.”

Teaming with several industry partners, IMA developed a 52 question on-line survey that generated responses from tradies nationwide with electricians, carpenters, mechanics and plumbers being the trades most widely represented.

The research gathered detailed information on the brand and type of vehicles tradies prefer, their favourite tool brands and their favourite building suppliers and hire companies.

Questions were also asked about their print and digital media habits, the level / frequency of engagement with these mediums and the devices they used to access their on-line information. Further data was collected on brand loyalty, purchasing habits and influencers in the purchase process, as well as more general information covering their hobbies, sporting preferences and business outlook.

One of the interesting findings was tradies’ heavy use of social media, however despite their involvement in the digital space, only a small quantity followed company websites or social media pages. The two suppliers mentioned as being actively followed, are investing in relevant, engaging and consistent content.

The research also indicated that tradies exhibit high levels of brand loyalty and are heavily influenced by friends and colleagues when purchasing vehicles, tools, building materials or choosing equipment hire companies, which suggests marketers need to deeply understand tradies’ specific needs to disrupt their buying habits.

Karl says that IMA was looking forward to further analysing the research and to start executing new data-driven campaigns for clients based on the results.

“Being an online survey we predominantly attracted those tradies in the 20-40 age bracket, which is ideal as this age group is the future for our clients,” he said.

“Next steps are to formulate strategies and leverage our insights to have the best impact for our construction industry related clients.”